One to be Feared

We stepped aboard the magnificent C.I.D. prototype airship. Our destination was to find Prishe somewhere amidst the Jeuno armada as we made our way to meet Bahamut. Hardy adventurers stood by my side, comrades in arms through many battles, and I felt safer because of them.

Barely had we set off into the sky before we realized it was not to be a carefree ride. That treacherous Nag'molada had brought out his mammet puppets to slow us down while he dealt with Prishe on another airship. Lordstorm courageously drew their attention and kept the rest of us safe as Zadine, Zephiris, and Miur engaged one after the other on more favorable terms. Verrick and I stayed out of the fighting ourselves, knowing we were needed to keep everyone up and healthy. we made short work of the mammets, and advanced to the next ship.

This one was not so easy. Nag'molada sent a strange biotechnological weapon against us, the likes of which I had not seen before. We were determined to see our way through any foe, however alien it may be, and rushed into battle with Omega. This fight was not so clean. It released wave after wave of energy, rolling over each and every one of us, fatiguing even those of us in the back, furthest away from it. Lordstorm, bearing the brunt of Omega's attacks, was the first to fall and I did not last long after that. In quick order, Omega tore through our defenses and dropped each of us. Luckily, I had prepared for such an occurrence, and had a ward to bring me back so that I might do the same for my party members. Miur had fallen too close to the feet of the monster, meaning he could not rise until we all had unweakened from our knockouts. We regrouped, charged back in to face Omega, and this time it could not stand against us.

We waited a few moments on the cleared deck of the airship, restrengthening ourselves and reviving Miur, the last to rise. We had one more grim task ahead of us, as we saw another alien weapon awaiting us on the final airship.

Ultima was brutal. It dropped bomb after bomb on us, enfeebling us with effects even as it damaged and wore us down. Our hearts were strong, and we stood again its fury for many minutes. Then, a slip occurred. I went down to a knee to rest, just as Ultima targeted Lordstorm. By the time I was standing again with a spell forming on my lips, it was too late, our paladin had fallen. My heart sank as I felt my delay had just sealed our fate against this one.

Verrick was not so quick to quit. A cry for "Pump it!" went out, and Zephiris managed to stall the next attack headed towards us. I went to work bringing Lordstorm back to his feet. The moment he arose, I saw another deadly attack coming towards us. I scrambled through my pack, and barley managed to get my CCB Polymer Pump out in time to stun Ultima's next attack, which certainly would have killed us all.

The battle grew desperate, and our fighters had to dig deep within themselves to find the strength we needed to survive through this. Lordstorm, weakened and barely conscious from his recent fall, drew Ultima's hate and used the protection of a paladin to deflect all blows. Zadine focused his spirit into his fists, and they became a blur as they slammed into Ultima again and again. Miur positioned himself perfectly for an unexpected attack, and quickly, Ultima began looking as hagard as we were. Verrick chained spell after spell in his attempt to bring the monster down before it could recover and front another attack.

Suddenly, we were out of resources. Zadine grew tired and his fists began to slow. Lordstorm's protection had worn off, and was vulnerable once again. Zephiris had lost her wyvern, and was fighting solely with her polearm. Miur was no longer in an optimal position for a damaging attack. Verrick's spells slowed, and I was near the end of my magic pool. Ultima may have sensed this as well, because it readied one last bomb to drop on us. Zephiris quickly advanced with a five thrusted attack, and Lordstorm charged forward with his shield in hand the bash the monster's concentration, stunning the attack.

Perhaps that shield held an enchantment unknown to us. Perhaps the weakened spirit of the paladin surged forth as it connected with Ultima. Perhaps we had simply worn down the unnatural beast so far that one simple stun was what it needed to realize its wounds and succumb to them. I do not know. At that moment, it was over. We stood bloody, battered, and bruised, but still we stood while our enemies did not.

Nag'molada would not be drawn into battle, and instead taunted the Wyrm King and fled. Bahamut exchanged words with us, then prepared to charge a Mega Flare that would wipe us out. In our state, we had no chance of stopping him. Tenzen stepped forward, and used the power of the Phoenix Blade to shield us from the blast. Even with the power of a terrestrial avatar, our airship was crippled from the mighty energies and we crashed into Lufaise Meadows. Our flight was short, having only lasted forty minutes and ten seconds, and we were still on the Tavnazian Archipelego. Despite the distance traveled in miles, we each knew we had come a long way in that short time as we banded together on the grass as we had on the deck of the flying ship.

Fan Fest 2oo8

What a blast this weekend has been. It all started out with catching the Alla admins arriving in Los Angeles at The Renaissance Hotel, the destination of this year’s Fan Fest. Once the whirlwind of attaching faces to screen names began, it gripped me tightly until the final goodbyes on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Walking into the hotel, I immediately ran into Thayos, Vlorsutes, and Drakknor in the lobby. We met up with Pikko and Susperia on the second floor, where I was told that the extra ticket they held could not be transferred to my name. I was a little sad, but half expected this, so I was determined to make the best out of the afternoon that I had with them.

We ate at California Pizza Kitchen on Hollywood and Highland. As many times as I have walked in front of the shopping mall, I had never actually been inside it yet, and it was quite impressive. MTV had a store there, where they sold paraphenalia branded with their logo (though it all looked more at home in the 80s with their classic designs and color schemes) and omnipresent Rock Band 2 merchandise. They even had three “stages” setup for anyone to walk up and try some songs out. While I was able to play both bass and guitar, the epicness began when Usagichan took the mic and belted out Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”. I was photographing, and only casually noticed Pikko was filming with her camera. The next morning, that video was on Alla’s front page.

After rocking out, I got a chance to play tourist myself for a few minutes. I took Thayos out to Hollywood Boulevard, and we were searching for stars for him to snap pictures of. He found a suitable choice when he spied Harrison Ford’s star in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater and the Virgin Megastore. He is a slight Indiana Jones fan, I have come to understand. Sadly, this was all the time that I had, and I needed to leave to get to work that night, so I left Hollywood thinking I would not see any of them again.

Epic win occurred just a few hours later. Pikko and Susperia had successfully lobbied to let me use the extra ticket! Talk about an R/Ex drop! I was so excited that I would get to see everyone again.

I started out for Renaissance Hotel and fan Fest early the next morning (well, early for me anyway), but sadly missed the opening ceremonies due to excessive car accidents on the freeway. Really, someone should screen people’s Chocobo licenses more often. I managed to arrive just before lunch time, and hung around with the Alla admins again in the Premier Site room.

The first sight I got to take in was the Fan Art Contest room. They hung up entries drawn by the fans on boards, giving it a sort of miniature art gallery feeling. Many were hand drawn, some were computer generated, and others were a combination of the two. The styles ranged from mangaesque to muralistic large pieces, and even a few monochromatic olde worldy pictures. I was pleased with many of the submissions and jealous at the same time. In glass cases were the “crafted” entries, being statues, repurposed children’s toys, plushies, and even a box of food. There were many that were impressive, but we only had the option to pick one drawing and one crafted item for the winner.

Lunch at the hotel was free and better than I expected from a buffet. It was probably the healthiest meal eaten by many that weekend. Did I mention it was free? That was nice as well.

After the first lunch group was done, it seemed a good time to get into the line to try out the upcoming Moblin Mazes content. We were setup with a party of six premade characters to choose from (I got stuck as a galka monk) and entered into a zone that looked much like Maze of Shakrahami. Our mob was a water elemental, so I felt pretty much worthless against it, but it was not terribly difficult. After the battle (which lasted 5~ minutes) we opened a chest which netted us 960 moblin marbles (probably a new form of assault/conquest/imperial/allied/zeni currency as nothing appeared in our inventory for them), but no items dropped. We still had a few minutes before the next group came in, so I tried talking to all the goblins in the shop to see if any displayed any sort of rewards or loot. No such luck though.

After the Moblin Mazes preview, we lined up for a chance at the Swarm special event. A fellow Garudian mistook Susperia for Pikko, so we began teasing her about it. The Alla people wandered off, leaving Susperia, Pachi, and I grouping with three strangers. The event was not all I hoped it would be. We stood around in the Silvermines, and one mob every second dropped from the ceiling. Most of them could be one-shotted (I was a hume war/nin wielding a greataxe, but no ninja tools >.<), and we received points on how hard the mob was. It was less of a coordinated event, and more of just a total zerg against the beasts, with every character for themselves. At the end of five minutes, our points were tallied and we were ranked in order of our scores. It seemed a pleasant diversion, but not something that I was overly thrilled about. It was interesting to note that the Swarm room included controllers for us to use while we played, but no ninja tools, while the Moblin Mazes room had ninja tools, but no controllers.

Just as we exited the Swarm room, we heard that Scott from VG Cats was signing and sketching upstairs in the Premier Site room. Vlor, Thay, Pikko, and Usagi stayed downstairs in the main conference room, updating the Alla site and ensuring good seats for the Dev Meeting, while the rest of us lined up for sketches. I managed to complete my Tarut Card set in line, I got a personalized mithra drawing of my character in starter RSE, and then had to hurry downstairs, as we were already twenty minutes late for the Developer’s Talk.

I walked in right as they began to announce the new Scholar merits (YAY!). While my SCH is still a little low to be meriting just yet, I am getting close and am glad to see that S-E are not letting the new jobs go idle without endgame potential the way the ToAU ones were for a long time. My eyes popped out when I saw the SCH relic armor though. It made me want to start Dynamis runs finally. I am so excited to relvl SCH again so I can finally hit 75 and start trying it out in different battles.

They announced more relics and merits for Dancer, but since I have never played DNC it did not mean much to me. It really seems like S-E are putting it in a more frontline position, with the possibility of making it a new tank. Of course, I am not sure how many people are willing to tank with it yet, but one can still hold out hope that a job with native enmity generating moves will find the occasion to step up to the task. The relic armor looks rather nice as well.

The Devs went on to talk about their measures against the RMTs. They started off with a video called “STF Wars”, where the screen scrolled with all the names and servers of the people banned in the last year. It went on for about two minutes, and needed to be sped up or else it may have been over ten minutes long. It was good news and a welcome sight for legitimate players everywhere. The majority of their plan seems to involve a form of catch and release; waiting until the gilseller is close to reaching an objective, then banning that account and all their mules. The most amusing part was the repeated catch phrase that ended each hypothetical scenario, a quick summary of events all leading to “LIFELONG REGRET!”

This was followed by the costume contest. They brought out all the cosplayers on stage, let the S-E judges pick their ten favorites, and then let the audience decide who the winners would be. The top three finalists all had amazing outfits: one guy wore a pinkish octopus mask and the robes/staff of a soul flayer, a gal wore the green SMN complete with plush Carbuncle and a SMN horn, and the winner was a most impressive BLM in full Morrigan’s Set, with a Pluto Staff and even elvaan ears (I had to get close to notice these even).

The awards ceremony came next, with all the entries for the fan art contest announced. Sadly, only the one of the three finalists for the drawing category showed up to accept their award, so we never got to meet the original artist. The developers picked an entry submitted from my favorite FFXI webcomic, LVLUP!, as the developer’s choice winner. At least two of the three winners for the crafting contest showed up. Pikko won second place with her Mandy Bento dish (which she humorously stated “I made it this morning” when the emcee asked her how she created it), and the first place winner was an impressive statue of a chocobo raising its babies. More awards followed, such as first to register, last to register, farthest traveled, least distance traveled. They followed up the awards ceremony with a stirring performance from The Star Onion’s keyboard player, Kumi Tanioka. She ended the set off with her “last song”, “Ragnarok” from the Alexander fight at the end of the Aht Urghan storyline mission. That was an experience for me, as that is my favorite song in the game. She came out and did a few encore songs after a brief Q&A through a translator, and then the events were over, which gave more time for socializing and Moblin Maze runs! I took a picture with Kumi Tanioka as well, as the crowds were dispersing off to their rooms.

We ended the night much as we had the night before, at the Rock Band 2 store and in CPK again. This time, it was my turn to get candidly taped while singing AFI’s “Girl’s Not Grey”. We had Darkdoom along with us, and retired back to the hotel, to attend a party held in the FFXI Vault player’s rooms, until I finally had to leave before the parking lot I was staying in closed, I got towed, and stranded in Hollywood. I ran into the developers wearing party hats and masks in the elevator, carrying a birthday cake to someone’s room. It was a funny sight to end the night.

Recent Events

Perhaps I have been in Vana'diel too much, or maybe I was just more efficient, but it seems as if I have completed a lot more this month than I have in awhile. I would like to lean toward the latter for ego purposes.

On the CoP front, Imperium blew through both Sacrarium and Promyvion-Vahzl with ease. The only problems for the night stemmed from me looking at maps and autorunning into tauruses' (is that plural for taurus? They almost seem like moose, with the plural and singular meaning the same...). I find it humorous that the Sacrarium, a holy chapel, uses the same textures as Phomiuna Aqueducts. So much for a library of learning, I cannot stop thinking of it as a sewer now. The fight against the ghosts in a library full of fomors was fun and chaotic though.

Just a short week later, we climbed to find the heart of the emptyness, Promyvion-Vahzl. We faced down the three NM monsters we had beaten seperately, now joined together in one fight. I have always loved treking through the strange realms or Promyvion, but I believe several others were quite glad we were free of the final one.



Also, pink is the new awesome:



I got a random invite into a party looking to do Windurst 9-2 mission, the fight in Full Moon Fountain. I was quite excited and went into it expecting an epic conflict, but was surprised at how easy and smoothly the fight went. I have heard horror stories about the NPC getting himself aggrod and killed quickly, but we finished off both bosses with him at 100% health. Gogo galka PLD Ishkur!



In yet ANOTHER mission related win, I teamed up with Makina and Zephiris to complete the current end of the Wings of the Godess missions. It involved a dragon fight in La Vaule [S] that was quite tricky the first time, but easy the second time around. It was fitting that the moment the dragon began using its breath attacks on us, rain started pouring from the sky. The somber sky seemed to match the setting and destruction the demon squads had brought out that fight. We got a first peek at Atmos, and some more twists and surprises in the resulting cutscenes.




I had my first chance to attend a Dynamis run, with TeamSuicide, and was the only WHM in the alliance. I was not terribly impressed with the whole experience. It seemed very laggy, and a lot of time was spent standing around tossing a cure or two while everyone else got to do all the fighting. Seemed more like run-around-and-kill-everything event than a planned advance. Still, it was nice to see my first Dyna area, even if it was Bastok. Nothing really dropped our run either, though. I snapped a quick picture of the sole time I grabbed aggro for a moment, just a little before the Mega Boss came out.



I finally got my SCH to lvl 60, and wanted to complete the final AF for it (in this case, the hat). There is a sense of accomplishment for me, everytime I get a piece of AF. It is an affirmation of the class you are playing. It is something you need to earn, not just buy on the AH. The fight for the SCH flathat was ridiculously easy by final AF piece standards, so we went in a liiiiittle bit overpowered. I never even got a chance to screencap anything before the boss exploded. This series of CSes showed me beyond a doubt, that scholars are a strange bunch.



The final little bit is just a random moment captured in LSchat that made me laugh and was worthy of quoting, so here is something that is NOT about how much I accomplished this month.

New Linkshells and Experiences

Most of this last week was spent on my SCH. I managed to bring it up to 43, making it my second highest job, edging out BLM and SMN recently. While I really love Accession and Sublimation, I have been trapped in too many level sync parties to take full advantage of them, making me feel like I am not learning crucial skills to use later on. Most my magic has remained at cap, though I noticed Dark Magic was uncapped at 43. Sadly, I spend 90% of my SCH time in a party as main healer, so not as much chance to bring it up as I would like.

I managed to blow through almost all the remaining Lance Corporal assaults with Ishkur and friends, finishing up Demolition Duty (easy one in Ilrusi Atoll with an automaton tearing down walls while you protect it) and Shanarha Grass Conservation (painful one in Leujaom Sanctum pitting you against 20+ bunnies that all link). After spamming just a few lower tier ones, I managed to rank up to Corporal today, easily finding the Warhorse Hoofprint in Wajom Woodlands (take THAT Caedarva Mire >.<). That leaves only the Mamool Ja assault left for the Lance Corporal rank before I have a completion of those tiers.

My OTHER assault static, LegendarioSalvages, has started basic forays into Salvage recently, which I am happy about. Our first run was jumpy, though not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We had no pt deaths, only deaths from people scouting without sneak/invis on. Enyo's leggings dropped, but our run was cut short by a flan on floor two. We wiped hard, and had to HomePoint because I died before I could get another reraise up. At least the melee types died in a circle, holding each other's hands:



Our second run through Bhaflau Remnants went smoother, though we actually did not get any drops. We lasted the full time limit though, and climbed to about floor five I believe. At least this run, we got almost fully geared, instead of barely unlocking anything and trying to finish the run naked. We faced down a strange NM, a gate that shoots bees at you. I wonder if Jhonen Vasquez had any influence on this mob's design:



In sad news, Imperial is in the process of repearling. It was first changed to EternalEclipse (I had nothing to do with this name, it was decided while I was working), and later changed more sensibly to Imperium, a vast improvement. The subtle name change helps to solidify that the core LS is staying the same, even if our leader has left Vanadiel.

A final picture, taken in Jugner Forest [S] with Light Ixion/Auroral Alicorn will bring this entry to a close. Its horn was broken, and it was losing life. I cured it a few times, but then the war drums of campaigning orcs scared it away.

Minor update: Fishing and NMing (fished NMs, that is)

This is in no way complete, as too much has gone on since my last post to fit all into one entry. This merely covers one day.

Today was very different from my usual experiences in FFXI. I spent the morning in Kuftal Tunnel fishing in direct competition for devil mantas, and more accurately, their angel skins. It started out rather boring, but began to pick up as I got the hang of it. Zephiris and I were duoing, and when one of us pulled up a pugil or crab, she would solo it while I continued fishing.

As hours went by, Verrick joined us as well, though he was more interested in light xp and skilling up on his THF than fishing up any mobs. A few times all three of us were essentially soloing because we had the misfortune of all pulling up monsters at the same time. Things were always in hand though, even when we decided to pop the Phantom Worm at a nearby ???. We only got two claims on the Devil Manta, and no angelskin drops, but it planted a seed in my head of wanting to finally start lvling fishing.

I was in a level sync party during the day, and managed to bring my SCH up to 40. Accession seriously rocks, and I was happy to finally have a chance to Protectra and Shellra without having to rely on my /whm's capped versions. Our puller was infamous among Imperial for his random comments (and unforunate delusion of adequacy), and he did not disappoint this time. This screencap speaks volumes:



I met a nice samurai there who was also a fisherman, so after the pt disbanded we rode the ferry back and forth. I only raised my fishing skill up to 2.2, but I learned about lures on the ocean. I managed to come out of there with seven stacks of bastore sardines and two stacks of quus, along with assorted noble lady, yellow globe, and cone calamari singles.

The true fun began on our second to last trip on the ferry. Melana had opened the door, but stopped short before setting foot on the deck. It seems even on her dancer, she was afraid of the Sea Horror currently on deck. And who wouldn't be? This NM has caused more full zone wipes and xp loss than any other monster I have ever seen. We looked at it for a moment, decided we had strength in numbers and bravely stepped onto the deck with our weapons drawn.

The fight was tough, Melana dropped dangerously into the red during it's Hundred Fists (or is that tentacles?) when I was low as well, and I was forced to disengage and rest to keep the two of us alive. In the end, this sea monk's six arms were not enough, and a final blow from a darksteel maul brought us some closure and relief after having fallen so many times before it.

A Manifest Problem

I am not sure why, but I have never really mentioned here how much I love assault. While the ability to get a yigit set is reward enough on its own, I have always loved these quick little missions in place of camping an NM or something equally boring. Our little assault static (Kia, Maki, Thay, and I) have been making repeated trips to Leujaoam Sanctum for some worm battles, and I am getting nearer to owning my new magey saraweels each and every time.



I also managed to get a good party for the quest "A Manifest Problem", which I have been looking for help with for a few weeks now. A random shout in Whitegate found me with a DRK, and I invited Demesis along as RDM. We picked up a PLD randomly trying to solo it in Fort Karugo-Narugo, and had more than enough to pass it with ease.

We had to plow our way through many yagudo in the undertunnels of Ghoyu's Reverie.



We finally found the boss (or rather, he found us) and managed to spank him down in no time flat.



The situation in Windurst was much more grave, though. We had merely stopped the reinforcements, not the main force, and we entered to see the tarus and mithra clashing in the very streets of Windurst Waters. Even the young students of the Aurastery contributed to defending their homeland. Though Tzee Xicu was there, the yagudo relied too heavily on their reinforcments.



The victory came at a price though. There were political blunders to be addressed after the ambush, and many dead and wounded to be tended to.



There was a small consolation to be had for the mithran mercenaries after the skirmish. The surprise of seeing Lehko Habhoka, the first male mithra many of them had seen, was enough to cause them to forget the fierce battle and focus instead on him. It seems his milkshake brings all the cats to the yard. ^.~



He seemed to think I was merely a pawn in his mysterious game, and my suspicions are telling me he is not an entirely noble character. At least he has that sauve sense of evil surrounding him, though.



Other quick news, I am done with Valkurm and Korroloka again. Finally up to 21 ninja and getting crab hunting parties in Qufim Island. It is a relief to finally start feeling like a ninja, and less like a thief with dodge tools. I finished up all my current ninja scroll quests, and just need to level now until I can use them all. I also met and befriended a cute little mandy who can take some serious pain as well. Vana'Diel, the only place you can see a flower and a gnat fight, while one shotting everyone around them.

The Savage

Our LS (both of them really) has been abuzz over the past week about dragons. Ouryu, to be precise. The last three days have brought both Sage's and Imperial through Riverne Site #B01.

I cannot even keep track of how many people have gotten sacrarium access anymore, but I could easily estimate it around twenty or so. It starts off with a reflective moment along the Misreaux Coast cliffs, with Prishe consoling a young Ulmia.


Things quickly descended past words once we reached Monarch Linn, however. Bahamut seems to have little respect for Tenzen's mission to delve into the mysteries of The Emptiness.


Very quickly, we were sucked into a fight with one of Bahumut's friends. A kind, gentle wyrm anmed Ouryu. His interests include casually flying around, casting stoneskin on himself, and killing taru mages with massive AoEs. Somewhere in there, he finds time to chomp on armor wearing paladins.



Just when it seemed all hope was lost, and we were nearing defeat, the fight was over, and the dragons retreated. We were all a little worse for the wear, though it looks like Tenzen was the one who got the most winded.


Next up, Sacrarium! Though, not for awhile.

In ninja news, I am currently sitting at lvl 20, after having duo'd goblins in the dunes last night with Makina's bard. I am still loving it, and relearning when to cast, and when to hold for those long-ass ninjutsu spells. I have even managed to save a bit of gil in the way of shihei as well, by being picky about which AH to buy from. It is fun though, to play a proper melee character after having been a mage for so long.

Uggalepih Pendant Run (w/ Legion)

Legion is up and running lately, bringing members from both Sage's Wanderers and Imperial together every Tuesday. Our farming has paid off this past week, in the form of a few fights again the Uggalepih Pendant NM, Golden-Tongued Culberry.

This was a fun fight. Once our RDM (Thayos) popped the tonberry, Galluspit (PLD) voked it and off he ran. And ran. The entire fight involved bouncing hate between our elvaan and galkan paladins. I found it humorous to see such noble pillars of sacrifice and defense running away from the beast, but it worked well in this case. We ran into very few snags, mostly accidental Death spells getting through uninterrupted, causing a quick hate bounce to the other paladin.

We went through three pop items, and got one drop (from the first one, oddly enough). So Verrick has himself a shiny new bauble to hang off his pimp chain. We managed to get two really good screenshots from this run as well. The first was lining up for our success shot:


the second was an accident immediatly afterwards, in which a tonberry popped in front of us, and we watched Atul and Zarovich's diremites beat down the poor ugly bastard. We just passed the popcorn and watched the show.


In personal news, Hell has frozen over. I decided to start leveling ninja so I could have a greater breadth of melee jobs to choose from. Though I am still hesitant about the gil sinks inherent to being a ninja, I can remember why I stuck with it four years ago. I enjoyed it then, as I enjoy it now, and just might take it up to a point I can use it in events. Spent the evening leveling in Buburimu Peninsula with Zadine as a WHM, and three other pick up players. Currently sitting at 18NIN.

Ascending to Sky

Today, I have finally set foot upon the fabled floating island of Tu'Lia. My linkshell has really come forward and taken me through the dangers of the tonberrys in the Temple of Uggalepih and the Den of Rancor. They walked me through and kept me safe as I collected each headstone fragment, and returned the fragments to the Quicksand Caves, even as we were attacked by anticans. They stood beside as Kam’lanaut tried to wipe us mere mortals off from Vana'diel. Finally, they rallied their friends amoung fellow adventurers and managed to put a cerulean crystal in my hands, effectively opening the Hall of the Gods' shimmering circle to transport myself up to sky.

I went exploring my first time up in the clouds. I love the scenic views from Ru'Aun Gardens, and angelic music. I visited both the Shrine of Ru'Avitau and Ve'Lugannon Palace on my journey, and saw many scary and some new things never seen on the surface of Vana'diel. My two favorite parts so far are the waterfalls that drop off the edge and fall to nothingness below, and the transparent floors that leave hexagonal impressions as you walk across them.

Quick hits: Attained Windurst Rank 7 after the yagudo BCNM in Giddeus and subsequent climb up Castle Oztroja, got Verrick a much prized enfeebling earring from an ENM, fought and killed all six prime elementals to get attuned to fenrir battle, defeated fenrir, finally bought my own noble's tunic, spent my first merits on Shellra V, and killed Alexander one more time for Zephiris' win.

Treasures of Aht Urghan complete

This week has been a rather busied and accomplished week regarding mission ranks. First, and most importantly, Imperial's ToAU static finally reached, and triumphed over, Alexander. It was a tough battle, with Kia taking crazy amounts of damage throughout the entire fight, but we pulled together as a team andd managed to beat it down. With nine seconds left on the clock.

We had some trouble on the BLU near the end. A surprise Seraph Blade got through unstunned, though luckily Kia was healthy enough to survive it. A quick round of cures later, and he was at full again. Only, I managed to wrestle hate from him in the process and was not to lucky. I went down in two hits, and reraised just as they took Raubahn down for the third time. That left me with resting while everyone went after Razhbhad.

When Alexander came out fully, I had just unweakened. I stood up, and prepared to face the Iron Colossus of legend.



This really was a battle to turn the sound on and admire the beauty of it. The music was heavenly, and not tense like typical battle music is. The way it was attacking us was a sight to behold as well. Every attack and spell it used on us was a gorgeous dance of light, a play of fireworks until you start seeing people's HP dropping into the red. This was a fight were I was really wishing I had gotten my paws on a scroll of Cure VI somewhere.




Kia was holding hate well for an elvaan who spent a good portion of the battle terrorized in funny poses. Only a few wayward spells slipped through, and he did a good job of staying up through it all. However, I doubt very many PLDs can stay standing once Alexander begins reciting its poetry and the omega symbols scroll across the chatlog. I was caught just a little too close to Kia when Alexander unleashed Divine Judgement, and took a nearly fatal blast. Kia dropped immediatly, and I was quick to follow, weakened as I was from just seconds before.

A quick reraise and recovery, while the mages and melee adjusted to keep themselves alive, and we were back into the fray. The second leg of the fight became much more intense than the first half. Alexander was curing itself like crazy, and the nukers began dealing insane lvls of dmg to compensate. Both time and HP were dwindling, when we began to use our two hours in a bid to end it before we end up losing.



Somewhere around 10% HP, the familiar poetry and omega symbols once again flashed across the screen. Our PLD did everything he could to stay up, I did everything I could to keep him up, and Zaro, Verrick, Makina, and Thay did everything they could to take Alexander down fast and hard. As the light from the avatar of light came down from above us, I heard a cry of "BEAMZ!" and then fell limply to the floor. The last thing I saw was Alexander's life wavering around 2%, and then nothing.



I awoke with my face still against a hard surface, but this time the room was different. We were back out in the room we had come through when we entered. Behind us, a solemn silence had befallen where the avatars of darkness and light had played out their battle. Moments after I had fallen, Verrick put the last ounce of his magic into one final blow against Alexander. That was enough to end our fight against him, and let us get out while the confrontation between Odin and Alexander played out.





We were safe once again. Our battle had come so close to being the Ragnarok; we had stalled Alexander's final discharge of power with nine seconds remaining. Nine seconds.

I now wear my crown and ring proudly for all to see.

Ding.

Imperial Propaganda

So much has been going on recently, that I barely feel like I can keep up with everything going on in the past few weeks. Here goes (takes a deep breath):

First of all, I managed to get in some good, quality lvling with Imperial people again. Getting so near to 75, I can finally join up with all the senior members and not be merely a weight they are choosing to carry along. I actually feel useful once in awhile, so that is a major bonus for me. In this case, it was a pt of epic dings in Bhaflau Thickets.

Both Makina and Kia would hit their first 75 jobs (DRG and PLD respectively), Thayos would hit 75 in PLD, his original dream job, and even the elusive Pikko was along to get her first merit. If this is not a reason to celebrate friends and linkshell mates, there really is not much of a reason being in the shell afterall.

In further Imperial news, we have been clearing through the Aht Urghan storyline quickly; winning at least one battle a week, sometimes two depending on the length of the cutscenes and waits between the missions. We plowed through the mamool ja PLD fight in Jade Sepulchre (AU29) and the special assault in Periqia where we had to kill-ten-lamias and not aggro them all at once. This one took a quick revision of strategy, but we managed to finish it twice of both pts in the alliance.

Oddly enough, I did this very mission the next day with a friend of mine, Nibelungen as a duo. It got very close, but she went as mnk/nin for (extra survivabillity) and I went as whm/smn (for carby pullingness) and we managed to beat this as a duo. I still find it strange how we wiped our first time with a full ot and several 75s, while a pt of two got through it with only medium difficulty.

The storyline for ToAU took some interesting twists, bringing us to a battle against Gessho. It is hilarious how much the expectations for this fight differed from what really went down. We all thought it was going to be a simple case of get in there, remove his shadows, and start to spank him. Gawd we are dead wrong. This BC fight with him would prove to be the most difficult fight yet in the AU storyline. The setup was Kia PLD, Zaro BST, Thay RDM, Maki/Zeph DRG, Verr/Kaer WHM x2, and we still could not keep our PLD up from the amount of damage he was dishing out between his AoEs and everything.

We ended up having Zarovich kiting Gessho around the arena, which worked much better than trying to straight tank it all. We began to see much closer matches, and Thay managed to keep Zaro alive by pulling the frequently spawning clones off Zaro until they despawned. The most hilarious moment of this fight was when we found out that when real Gessho hits his two hour, all the clones do as well. This meant four Mijin Gakures hit the pt at the exact same time. It dropped everyone in the actual arena, leaving only a raise weakened PLD and myself, the out of mp WHM, up in the tunnel, though we would both drop very soon after that from angry birdman aggro.

Once, we got so close to winning that we got booted from the BC when there was only 2% HP remaining in the enemy. Needless to say, we were very happy to be over and done with that fight. As much as a pain in the ass this fight was, it was actually worth every cheap death once the resulting cutscenes came rolling in. This story has me so hooked and I cannot wait to resume for the final missions.

On the Road to Maat...

(pics pending)

These past few days have been insane for xp partying. Maybe because I have been staying up uber late and only getting all Japanese parties, but the experience just keeps rolling in almost faster than I can buy new gear and spells for it. I have gone from 66 to 69 in two and a half days.

The pts have mostly been in Caederva Mire, battling heraldic imps and those ugly fnun toads. One group did break the mold by taking me out to Bibiki Bay for a dhalmel hunting party. It was cool to go somewhere I had not been before (yes, it was my first time there on Kaer), and the party was a little unconventional as well. We had a whole pantsload of DNC/NINs in the party, which was awesome to see and really makes me want to lvl dancer myself now. Only trouble we had was from bomb aggro at the end of a chain. The self destruct dropped three people from almost full to worm food. A sad moment, but we recovered and got their xp back for them.

This morning, sitting pretty at halfway to 69, I got into one last xp party and managed to hit 69 and gain a little bit of a buffer. The time was suddenly upon me to go looking for my white mage testimonial. I would show that cranky old man in Ru'Lude Gardens what I was made of! I gathered some Imperial people (Makina as DRG and Kiabrightblade as PLD), and headed out in search of my paper.

Our search led us through the Yhoator Jungles and into the volcanoes of Ifrit's Cauldron. Once again, I was in a new area, exploring parts of Vana'Diel never seen by myself, and only witnessed by a few others as well. We lost a bit of time while searching the the proper goblins; some of it was wasted (like getting separated by a wall of magma for several minutes), and some was well spent (getting both the key and coffer to grant me a map of the zone!), but we eventually found a good camp and slew enough goblin alchemists to get me my testimonial!

We lingered on in Ifrit's Cauldron, continuing to kill. Continuing with the night before, I would continue to be plagued by bombs. My NPC fellow dropped after about half an hour to a bomb's self destruct, one-shotting her all the way back to Ru'Lude Gardens and Jeuno's infirmary. Several times during the night a volcanic gas would attack us because of magic casting, and I, myself, dropped at one point due to a surprise self-destruct that took us all down to our last health. I suppose barwatera is not much of a defense against an explosion, but it aggroed off a cast while fighting another mob and I was too busy trying to magic burst off a light skill chain to realize I was only at 75% HP.

Sadly, Kia had to leave before we finished what he needed to do in there. That put an end to our LS pt, and both of them signed off for the night, leaving me standing in Jeuno with a testimonial, and the burning desire to use it immediately. I struggled through waiting until the morning when a quest could be turned in for a new piece of gear that would help me (bibiki seashell) and my AH items maybe sold off to generate more spending gil for the fight, and just rushing in now while I was in the right state of mind to confront Maat. Luckily, Emilliana was on, and looked over my gear and strategy and helped me decide to go ahead with the battle, however impulsive it was on my part. I went in without an expensive head piece or anything in my ammo slot.

My basic strategy was to buff up as normal, rest, eat a Tavnazian Taco, blind myself with potions (giving me +30 Evasion from earrings), drink a yagudo drink, and get Maat's attention. I spent the next five minutes running from him, letting my Holy Breastplate, phalanx rings, and earth staff lower the damage of his physical attacks against me. He only weapon-skilled once, a dragon kick for 247 dmg. The rest of the time he was hand to handing me for 70-80 dmg, or casting on me. I chose to run from him and kite him along rather than meleeing or standing still in the hopes that it would feed him less tp and also put some distance between the two of us, interrupting his spells and attacks once in awhile. The tp thing worked out alright, but not the distance thing so much.

He was casting Dia II, Banishga III, and Holy a lot. His Holys were only hitting me for a little more than his physical attacks, but his Banishga IIIs strangely always hit me for an even 100 or 200 dmg. Aside from that, he slowed me once, blinded (ha ha, sucker), and silenced me once. He silenced me at a very good time. I had just casted both Regen III and Cure IV on myself, so I did not even bother to echo drop it off right away. I just continued kiting him until I got a little nervous and took it off in case of an emergency arising. My MP started getting really low near the end and I had to settle for a Cure III over a Cure IV once. Before I could use a hi-ether to help me survive and keep casting a bit longer, the battle ended. Exactly five minutes to the second from the time I casted paralyze on him, he gave up and commended my display of skill.

Feeling absolutely elated at my victory, I began /hurray-ing outside the BC at Balga's Dias, and a pt of JP players just out from a BCNM all cheered when they saw my "Maat Masher" title. I went over my log, and noticed something peculiar. My blind potion had worn off about halfway through the fight, but I missed it and forgot to drink another one. When I counted how many missed attacks Maat had before and after the potion wore off, I was shocked to see the result. While blinded and having +30 evasion, Maat did not miss me once. I got several skillups to evasion, but he did not miss me at all. After the blind potion wore off, and my evasion returned to its normal white maging state, he missed me four times. Go figure. The entire battle took eight minutes and forty one seconds. I exited the Balga's Dias burning circle with 230 HP and 54 MP. Maybe that was cutting it a little close, but I am quite happy with the results.

Thank you to all for helping me get here. Makai and Mambypamby for tips about gear and strategies, Kiabrightblade and Makina for the testimonial help, Nibelungen and Emilliana for giving me a last-minute inspection and encouraging me to go ahead if I felt I was ready, and Imperial for helping this mithra get white mage up as high as I have, and enjoying that time immensely.

I am now officially a full-fledged white mage.

Unusual Camping Experiences

(pictures still pending)

People can really surprise me sometimes. For the past two nights now, I have been camping an NM, Hoo Mjuu the Torrent in Giddeus, for a money drop. NM camping, to me, has always carried a certain distaste; much like the fluoride they leave on your teeth at a dentist's office, it is something that needs to be done, yet any sooner then six months or so is unwanted.

My biggest problem with camping is generally with the other campers. As we are all competing to catch the NM the moment is spawns, we drop the usually friendly and cooperative nature that years of xp partying have instilled in us and don a more aggressive, hostile demeanor in an attempt to beat all the others and get the drop. I have been cursed at, griefed, and told to just go home to my moogle and shut up for saying anything to those around me (and that's just the non-RMT).

Not so these last few nights, though. The first time came after beating a rude RMT to the pop, and watching him leave in frustration. A taru red mage (in AF no less, not starter gear) came strolling up during the interim between pops, and we began emoting and eventually struck up a conversation despite our language barriers. The red mage, Cataria, and I laughed, killed placeholders, and eventually he waved goodbye and warped out. He said he did not feel right competing for an NM against me.

I was stunned. To have someone just stand aside and let you step in when gil is involved is rare. We continued to talk even after he left, and once I killed Hoo Mjuu, I gave him the time of death and let him camp it, for it was nearing dawn at that point for me.

Today when I resumed my quest for the big monies, I came across a mithran thief already at the spot. Almost immediately I began receiving tells. Once again, we started talking, and the tedium of camping soon gave way to another sense of camaraderie. It came out that Xnera was camping the signa for her beastmaster, while I was also looking for yagudo beads to put towards my Norg fame. In my eyes, since she was going to be putting the staff to actual use and I merely wanted to sell it, I let her take the claim, and she passed on any beads that dropped along to me. She even offered to stay once she had killed Hoo to help me farm beads, though I needed to leave FFXI at that point.

It was refreshing to meet two people back to back at a camping spot that did not let greed overwhelm their sense of fun. It really lifted my spirits up after poor past camping experiences.

Missions, missions, missions galore!

The day started off simple enough, but with a bang. And a quick thud. A simple besieged raid by the undead swarm turned out to drop me like rocks. I died about three times the entire time, never once from anything I could see. Easy enough xp though, so it was not really frustrating.

Spending some time in Whitegate after repeling the lamia attack, I happened to come across someone shouting for some help for CoP 2-5. Once again, I grasped at the hope that I might better understand this fight by replaying it several times, and decided to tag along. What a mess it turned out to be. I love Riverne Site A01. It is a gorgeous zone. Yet, I hate how it leeches people of their senses, like the lvls being stripped away by the restriction cap also takes the knowledge of what you have learned during that time with it, rather than simply limiting your abilities and gear. I forget exactly how many times we died, but it was frustrating to not even get close on any of those attempts. I will have to look into my friends list to see who still needs this, as I have always had better luck with my friends doing this than with random strangers.



Thankfully, my Imperial ls mates stepped up, and fully delivered what I had been craving. We continued last week's ToAU static party and faced the Shield of Diplomacy battle (AU 22). I think the little imp in the cutscenes has to be my favorite new NPC to watch. I seriously screenshotted him more than anyone else I can think of. Maybe because he reminds me of something that would appear in Disgaea. Anyway, I am calling him Impy McFly. Oh yeah, the battle was pretty fun too.


We decided quickly to not take the easy road, and show both Shantotto and Khimaira 13 what Imperial can do on the battlefield. Whlie Shantotto's spam casting Ancient Magic IIs definitely helped, it was clearly an Imperial victory. Everyone but Zarovich would drop at least once during the fight, yet we all popped back up and continued to fight, unwilling to let our comrades in arms down. After taking a pounding from Makina's Shiva, Shantotto's AMIIs, and Zaro's nukes, Thayos and Kia managed to tank and kite the beast to the point it just collapsed. Check out a moment from the midfight here:

In addition to spam nuking though, Karababa was trying to "coach" (or is that berate?) us into an effective party. Here are a few of the tips she passed on midfight to us:



After the regular planned LS event, I was able to find some help for a mission NM of my own. I had to warn Fort Karugo-Narugo about a yagudo sneak attack, and rescue poor widdle Ajido-Marujido from an NM. The fight itself was not too difficult, though the stupid amounts of damage the War Lynx could dish out caused my PLD to cry out "LAWDY!" once as a single attack dropped him by 982 HP.


The resulting cutscenes managed to inspire as well. I got to see Perih Vashai when she had sight, dropping yagudos like it was nobody's business but her own, got to see Ajido-Marujido disciplined while still a troublesome youth, a peek into the inner turmoil between mithra and taru politics, while being introduced to a mysterious new War Warlock. Last series of cutscene events I had the chance to undertake (bringing me to the end of the current WotG storyline) involved getting eaten by a maw (again) and meeting up with Cait Sith.